The Spectacular Dr Horrible
by thallata
Summary: The E.L.E. sends Dr. Horrible to New York as part of a test. There he will team up with Dr. Octopus and take on Spider-Man. And just maybe he'll learn to finally get over Penny's death.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own any of these characters, alas.

Dr. Horrible's newest assignment with the E.L.E is to work with an old friend of Professor Normal's in New York. There he will help Dr. Octopus with his schemes and try and get over the aftermath of Penny's death.

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><p>I have of late,—but wherefore I know not,—lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,—why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?<p>

Hamlet Act II Scene ii

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><p>Dr. Horrible sat silently in the Evil League of Evil's private jet, staring out the window at the fluffy clouds streaming by. He was sitting in the fanciest airplane cabin he had ever seen, but he didn't even care; over the last few months he had become bored with the pointless displays of wealth the League seemed so fond of. The doctor had his goggles down and was listlessly finding shapes in the towering clouds. Over and over again he saw only one thing: her face splashed across the sky in a thousand different cumulous forms. He closed his eyes behind the blank lenses and clenched his black-gloved hand, trying to think of absolutely anything else. The only other occupant of this opulent cabin was Professor Normal, who was watching Dr. Horrible's contemplation of the view.<p>

The professor picked up his drink and remarked, "I've always enjoyed flying. There's just something delightful about soaring through the clouds, so far above the everyday. Especially through such a picturesque sky. What do you think Doctor?"

"'It appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours,'" Horrible said in a menacing tone that he used to have to work at maintaining.

Professor Normal smiled at the Hamlet quote. Ever since Horrible had joined the E.L.E. he had indeed 'lost all his mirth,' and in such an impressively destructive yet clever way. Just last week he had melted the First National Bank to an oddly flavorfully smelling slag after he robbed it. True, he seemed resistant to racking up a more respectable body count, but all things considered the not-so-good doctor was an excellent addition to the team. Normal had been pressing Bad Horse for years to include another super-scientist on the team; Dead Bowie's magic and Fury's brute force were all very well and good, but they lacked the elegance and simplicity of a good old-fashioned doomsday device.

Horrible finally turned away from the window and returned his attention to the files before him. When he had been yearning to join the League, he'd had no idea that there would be so much paperwork. And meetings, he was in meetings almost every day: endless boring tedious mind-numbing meetings. If he had to chair one more joint E.L.E-minion potluck-brainstorming extravaganza, he would go insane… insane-er. Horrible barely had three consecutive hours to spend in his lab most days between all his new obligations. At least his heists were going more smoothly since Captain Hammer vanished. And he had to admit to himself, since Billy stopped holding himself back. How could he have devoted himself fully to evil if he was trying to save the world? It was too late to save the world; all that was left was the chance to change it, from the rubble up if needed.

Oh, who was he trying to kid? Horrible was more than capable of keeping up the façade for the E.L.E. and the henchmen, but inside, where he scarcely dared to admit it to himself, Billy hated what he was becoming. Well, it was pointless crying over spilt blood and ruined lives. He just hadn't really thought through all the implications of becoming an actual super villain.

"Remind me again, how do you know this Dr. Octavius? It's not in the folder," Horrible asked the professor to distract himself. Of all of the other E.L.E. members, he preferred the company of Professor Normal; he really was the most… normal. It was comforting, when everyone else around you had a snake-cycle or Stardust space-plane, to spend time with someone who just drove a Volvo. Horrible still didn't even have a car yet, though he was thinking of getting one. Or maybe a jet pack.

"Oh, Otto and I were in graduate school together. I wouldn't say we were friends, the man has always been difficult, but we ended up sharing an apartment for two years. He's brilliant but has a rather high opinion of himself, I mean more than usual for an evil genius. We kept in touch after grad school and we've worked together a few times over the years, both academically and criminally," Professor Normal explained.

Horrible nodded and continued to skim the file on this 'Dr. Octopus.' His research did seem impressive: mind-controlled tentacles, atomic reactors, and Octobots. When Horrible got back to L.A. he was going to have to make some Horribots. He pulled out his notepad and added it to the bottom of his to-do list.

Take over world

X Send in rent check

X Prepare report on feasibility of stun-rays as a deadly weapon

Buy and or steal milk, eggs, chocolate chips, HeNe 594nm laser

X Pack for trip to NYC, bring all possible weapons, leave room for souvenirs

Build Horribots

He replaced the list at the bottom of his heap of papers and returned to the League's biography of Dr. Octopus. Their histories were depressingly similar; both had been mocked for intelligence for most of their youth and some stupid 'mighty' hero was always thwarting them. He wondered if this Spider-Man was as aggravating as Hammer; there wasn't a lot of information on Spider-Man in the packet, but even in L.A. people had heard of him. He could allegedly do everything a spider could, though in Horrible's experience, spiders mostly just got squished once they broke the no-creepy-arachnids-above-the-bed rule.

Sighing, Horrible returned to his reading and found the blueprints for the device that Dr. Octavius wanted a 'nefarious consultation' on. The design wasn't nearly as inspired as that of his own freeze-ray, but it was much larger in scope. Horrible generally didn't bother with such explicitly detailed plans, as he did his best inventing while improvising, but he respected an evil scientist who made sure to close every circuit and dot every _i_. He saw several areas where the design needed more work, and at least two where LEDs could be added for a more menacing look. He scribbled his notes on the diagrams themselves, adding a few doodles on the very edge of the page for a new invention he had been toying with. If his preliminary calculations were correct, then it might be possible send one person back in time, at least if you were willing to use up 40% of the world's diamonds. Possibly 60%, the math was being fairly tricky to resolve.

Soon they would be in New York, which Billy was actually looking forward to. It would be nice to get away from L.A. and the ashes of his triumph. He figured he would spend a couple of weeks making with the superscience, and maybe spend another week just sightseeing, assuming the League didn't recall him. Horrible knew he really ought to finish reading this incredibly detailed list of suggestions, background, plans, and instructions, but it was in danger of putting him to sleep. He was making little stick figures in the margin of a paper Dr. Octopus had written entitled "The Applications of Nuclear Science as Pertaining to Takeover of Major Cities," when Professor Normal appeared to notice that his colleague hadn't finished going through the documents.

"Have you reached the section that goes over your cover identity?" Normal asked.

"My what now?"

"You'll be in New York long enough that it's easier if we set you up with a day job, but one that will facilitate Operation Usurp. You'll have a job as a postdoc in a lab at ESU. I called in a favor from Dr. Sanderson, by which I mean I blackmailed him. You shouldn't have much trouble with the subject matter, and he's on sabbatical right now anyways, so you should have plenty of time to work on your various… devices," he said with a vague hand gesture.

Horrible shuffled through his folders until he found one cryptically labeled "William Bridle, PhD." He opened it and was greeted with his resume, or at least what his resume would look like if you left out all the parts related to Dr. Horrible and padded it with some legitimate publications. Apparently he was going to be William Bridle then; he wondered if Bad Horse had chosen the name. Grimacing, he also wondered if there had been a real William Bridle who was now dead because of this.

He flipped through the folder until he found a set of Sanderson's publications; bah, they were mostly biochemistry related, how boringly rigorous. Though on the up side, he seemed to use a lot of lasers in his work, and lasers were always fun; they were just so full of laser-y goodness. Also, photons. Horrible was sure he could fake his way through knowing the subject matter on a casual basis, he just hoped that the rest of the lab wouldn't ask him too many questions about his history in the field of… he paused to flip back to the CV, high-throughput drug development. Huh, well, he had three more hours before they landed, time enough to skim the subject at least.

Two hours later Professor Normal interrupted his perusal of the surprisingly interesting "Photodynamic Compounds as a Novel approach to Chemotherapeutics" to encourage the doctor to prepare for exiting the plane.

"You did bring real cloths right? I mean grownup clothes, not those hooded sweatshirts you always wear," the professor asked.

"You have me under surveillance?" Horrible asked, clearly surprised. He had known the League had been watching him during his evaluation, but he'd assumed all that had stopped once he joined.

The professor's eyewear made most looks difficult to read, but this one clearly said 'duh.'

"You won't survive long in the E.L.E if you don't keep tabs on all our… friends," he responded sweetly in a voice tinged with malice.

"Uhhh, I brought mostly hoodies. And lab coats. And one winter lab coat with a hood. Also, some t-shirts," Horrible confessed. He hadn't known that he was being closely watched by the rest of the League. Billy clenched his jaw and wished again that he had known what he was getting into.

The professed massaged the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Fine, fine, go put on your most formal 'hoodie.' Given the hysterical nature of the response to threats at airports, it would be best that we didn't garner undue attention, such as by wearing welding goggles and a bright red lab coat."

"So are you going to do something about the that?" Horrible asked, gesturing towards the professor's cybernetic eye superstructure. Professor Normal gave him another look and shooed him away.

Dr. Horrible glared at the professor, but got up to go change. The jet had several actual bedrooms in it, one of which was his. He returned to the room with his name painted on the door in matte black, and went inside. He quickly rummaged through his duffle until he found his black hoodie. Black was formal, right? He stripped off his vinyl gloves, and unbuttoned his blood red coat with fingers that felt flayed. He shrugged out of the coat and then finally removed his goggles. Even fully clothed in a t-shirt and black pants he felt naked without his costume between him and the world. Since the… incident he didn't like being Billy, but he supposed he wasn't exactly Billy right now; he was Dr. Horrible pretending to be William Bridle. **Will** Bridle, not Billy. He felt his eyelid start to twitch as his thoughts drifted into uncomfortable territory.

He pulled himself together, crammed himself into his sweatshirt and went to the bathroom to try to fix his goggle-hair. His eyes met those of his reflection as he dragged a comb through his unruly blond spikes and paused mid-motion. He looked so empty; his eyes were lined with red and he looked gaunt and exhausted. He forced himself to stop staring, finished smoothing his hair, and then briskly washed his face in a pointless attempt to get rid of the goggle marks. He withdrew his shaking hands from his face and told himself, "Chin up, you can do this. This is everything you ever wanted."

He willed himself to believe that as his grip tightened on the edge of the sink. He forced himself not to dwell on the person who had given him that advice; the person he had utterly failed. Billy looked into the eyes of the monster in the mirror and turned away before he gave in to the urge to smash the glass. Well, flail at it anyway. He went back to where he had dropped everything and carefully packed it in his bag. He decided that his Darth-Vader-boots were not going to be comfortable for walking around in, so changed into a pair of grey high-tops. He probably had another 40 minutes to prepare before they landed.

Professor Normal watched Billy skulk back into the main cabin of the airplane. His posture was hunched and he had his hands jammed into the pockets of his sweatshirt; he looked so different than when he was the confident and dynamic Dr. Horrible. The professor wasn't sure if Horrible was better at hiding everything behind the goggles, or if Billy were on his way to a genuine split personality; either way the almost inevitable meltdown would be quite amusing to watch. Normal hoped that the newest member of the E.L.E would be able to pass his upcoming test. Bad Horse always liked to get a sense for how a villain acted when they thought they were operating on their own, and for the next month or so Dr. Horrible would be under fairly rigorous, but secret, observation. He was confident that Dr. Horrible would acquit himself well; the project was right up his alley, and though Otto had an ego larger than the sun, he was an excellent teacher and one of the premier evil scientists in the world. They didn't have much time before they landed at Newark, so he headed to his own cabin to change, leaving Dr. Horrible to return to his reading.

Horrible replaced all the papers save the William Bridle folder into his bookbag, which he had left next to his seat. He wished Moist were here to distract him, but henchmen weren't allowed in the main areas of the plane, and anyway Professor Normal had taken all the available berths with his own minions. There were only a few more papers left to read, so he picked one at random and settled down to read it. "Laser Inactivation: A Practical Guide to the Use of Class IV Lasers in Biology" turned out to be a good read; he didn't look up again until the chime sounded for the final approach and Professor Normal came back into the room.

Horrible stared at the professor; he had taken off his cybernetics and replaced them with a huge pair of ugly sunglasses and a fake beard. The professor ignored Horrible's look and picked up his magazine and waited to touch down. They didn't have to wait for a gate, one of the many privileges of being a member of the Evil League of Evil, and in less then 15 minutes they were striding across the firm New Jersey concrete towards the passenger pickup area.

Horrible only had his bookbag; the rest of the luggage had been left for the Terrible Teaching Assistants to deal with. Professor Normal strode ahead of him towards a dumpy little man wearing a trench coat and sunglasses that were at least as lame-looking as Normal's. Horrible forced himself to catch up before they reached the beat-up looking blue Chevy and the short, angry looking man in front of it.

"My God you've gotten fat Larry."

"Otto, a pleasure as always to see you," Professor Normal said in a tone that wasn't quite sarcastic.

Dr. Octavius turned his attention to Horrible and glowered at what he saw.

"So this is the newest member of your little villainous knitting circle. He's the one who invented a device that stops time, Dr. Horrendous or whatever? He looks like a freshman. Is that a sweatshirt? What are you, in high school?" Dr. Octavius asked in an increasing incredulous tone.

Horrible cleared his throat nervously and felt the nervous tick in his cheek start up. "I'm Dr. Horrible," he stated in his most menacing tone, or at least tried to, it came out a little mummbly. Dr. Octavius managed to give the impression of rolling his eyes even with them completely hidden behind his mirrored glasses.

"A doctor of what exactly? You hardly look capable of understanding basic calculus, let alone following the intricate designs I'm trying to implement. Larry you've completely wasted my time. Again. I should have known not to listen to you after that whole prosthetic limb debacle," Otto said, completely dismissing Horrible from the conversation.

"I have a degree in biochemical-physiomedical-nuclear-mechanical-molecular material science and engineering. And your so-called 'faultless designs' contain one dangerous feedback loop, 7 unnecessary inductors and a terrible user interface. You have to be like, _inside it_ to turn it on. Why would you want that? It's pointlessly difficult to deploy in the field and your average hero will still be able to turn it off by yanking out the power supply," Horrible ranted. He hated when other people thought he was a failure. His intellect was one of the few things Billy was genuinely proud of, and he wasn't about to take this sort of crap from a man who routinely got beat up by a spider.

"Very good," Dr. Octopus grudgingly allowed, "You're at least better at this than you look. Possibly you'll even be worth the enormous effort to teach you."

"Those plans were a test?" Horrible asked, confused. He was so tired of the constant testing of his abilities and villainy.

"Of course, I'm not going to let just anyone see the plans for this device, and I certainly wouldn't send them to Professor Normal, intellectual property thief, here. The actual plans are in my lair."

"I assume you mean the apartment. It's not a great place, but it's hardly a lair," Normal paused to check his watch and asked, "Are you just going to stand there gloating all day Otto, or should we get moving? I have to fly back to L.A. tonight."

"You're not staying? I'm crushed," Otto sneered.

"Well, I have a parent-teacher conference on Monday, and my son has a soccer game I promised to go to later this week. Oh, and of course Bad Horse needs me to work on the plan for destroying that Caring Hands thing."

Billy tried not to start at the mention of her charity. Why was the E.L.E going after them? Captain Hammer might not be an issue anymore, but the League had never bothered with volunteer organizations before when there were still heroes to crush and mayors to blackmail. He'd have to call Moist later and have him look into it. For a guy with basically no powers or skills, Moist was shockingly well connected.

"Fine, fine, we all have a busy week. Get in the car, and we'll go take a look at the plans in my _apartment_," Octavius said acerbically.

Horrible threw his bookbag into the back seat and followed it into the car. He carefully buckled his seatbelt and looked around at the perfectly ordinary interior of the Chevy. Otto barely waited for Professor Normal to shut the front door before he wrenched the wheel and sent them careening out into the early afternoon traffic.

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><p>This is set post-Act III by seven months. I haven't really anchored the Spiderman half into any specific continuity, but I may work harder on that in up-coming chapters.<p>

Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry for the long break all. I lost my beta reader, so I have been having to edit myself, which is a bit slower. Thanks for the great reviews everyone, and I hope you enjoy this chapter too!

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><p>"Well, your driving was bracing as always. I shall take a cab back to the airport. Or walk," Normal said after Dr. Octavius had come to a stop in front of a somewhat rundown brick house.<p>

Billy couldn't exit the Chevy fast enough. He had only a vague idea of where he was, but he would sooner hitchhike back to L.A. than get back into that car. Dr. Octavius was the worst driver he had ever ridden with. Even Professor Normal had seemed tense at the constant lane changes and honking. It wasn't that Octavius drove particularly fast; it was just that he drove with no regard _at all_ for any of the other cars.

They followed Octavius into the foyer of an apartment that might indeed be described as a lair. Most of the interior walls had been torn down, leaving the supports exposed. Part of the second floor had been torn out in the back half of the apartment, allowing towering metal structures to extend upwards. The walls had banks of servers against them, and most of the flat surfaces were covered in heaps of wire and spare parts. There was one clear area in the back of the room, next to a more orderly wood and metal working shop. There was a curtained off area to the left, where Horrible assumed the kitchen might still be.

Immediately after entering, Octavius threw off his coat, allowing 4 supple metal arms free from their confinement. Horrible guessed that would be why he was called Dr. Octopus.

"Welcome to one of my humble abodes," Otto said, gesturing as he flipped a bank of switches causing a variety of machines came to life. One of the metal arms reached over and picked up a coffee mug, while another whipped across to stop Professor Normal from peeking behind the curtain.

"Now then," Octavius said, a third tentacle whirling to drag a white board densely covered in drawings to the center of the room, "Here is the device we will actually be working on. I've made similar things before, but it is perhaps possible that it could be slightly improved with some of your more… unorthodox touches."

Horrible stepped up and studied the board for more then half an hour while Dr. Octavius and Professor Normal bickered in the background. Eventually he picked up a marker and started annotating the design as well as expanding on it in places. Eventually he became aware that both of the other evil geniuses had stopped arguing and were watching him.

"Well, I gather that the purpose of Operation Usurp is to gain information from and control of any device with an internet connection and route it through your… tentacly things. It also looks like you're also attempting to build some kind of force suppressor up on the top here, but it has almost no defenses against, for instance, someone throwing it off a roof. I mean other than the sheer mass of it, which you're going to need to scale down, because you're going to need to mount it somewhere really tall for good coverage, like say, oh, a roof. It's also going to have absolutely insane power requirements, like more power than a… herd of umm, aircraft carriers," Horrible trailed off at the twin stares that were directed his way. He nervously swallowed and unconsciously slouched down further into his hoodie.

"See Otto, I told you the boy was smart," Normal gloated.

"Hmpt. Fine, yes. Those are the problems I'm trying to work on right now. What I want to… subcontract to you is the 'force suppressor.' I need something that will keep Spider-Man from interfering while the device is in operation, if you can engineer something that will specifically kill him that would also be acceptable. The power supply will not be an issue, I have a miniaturized atomic reactor; it will be able to power the device for weeks at least," Octavius paused as the doorbell rang. He raised an eyebrow at the professor.

"Oh, that must be my henchmen. I'll have them bring in Dr. Horrible's luggage. Where do you want them to set up?" Normal asked.

"What? He can't stay here. I've told you that twice already," Octavius said, his tentacles whipping past the professor to block off the door.

"Why not? You said yourself, this is only one of your many… lairs," he said with a distasteful emphasis on the word.

"I can get a hotel room…" Horrible tried to interject as the doorbell rang again.

"Can I at least have them come inside so they don't attract attention?" the professor demanded.

Otto glowered but withdrew his metal arms. He stalked over to the far side of the lab grumbling under his breath as two buxom young co-eds strode into the building, dragging several duffle bags behind them. The bags were dumped unceremoniously at Horrible's feet and they flounced back towards the door and Professor Normal, who was slowly backing towards the door.

"Well, since you seem to have everything well in hand, I'm going to see if I can move up my departure. I am sure Operation Usurp will go well, and I wish you both the best of luck," Professor Normal said as he and his TAs dodged out through the still open door.

"Now wait just a minute you treacherous wretch," Dr. Octopus threatened as he propelled himself towards the professor with his augmentations, just as the door slammed closed. Octavius pulled himself short before he drove himself through the front wall. Outside they heard the sound of a car peeling out and then quiet descended on the lab, except for the soft hum of server fans and the soothing 60hz buzz of electricity. Dr. Octopus stood with his back to Dr. Horrible, his tentacles irritably lashing out, almost but not quite ever hitting anything. Billy swallowed nervously and bent down to grab his bags.

"Umm… I'll just go and uh… see about that hotel thing," he mumbled.

"No, no. You can stay here tonight, and we'll finish going over the suppressor and if it's not beyond you, the miniaturization. Larry said something about you posing as a postdoc?" He turned to see Horrible's confirming nod, "Then tomorrow you can go to NYU or Columbia or whichever university that professorial fraud duped into taking you. The school year is about to start, so many students will be looking to share or sublet apartments, just look for the flyers," Octavius visibly collected himself and continued in a more sarcastic tone of voice, "Now, set up your magical 'freeze ray;' we'll order pizza and test it on the delivery peon. _If_ it works, I would be willing to assist with modifications so that you don't have that shorting problem after extended firing."

At the words 'shorting problem,' Billy's eyes spasmed shut and he was briefly overwhelmed with the memories of the aftermath of his attempt to kill Captain Hammer. Intellectually, he knew he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, but that hadn't helped him deal with the flashbacks. He shuddered as Penny's bleeding body swam before his eyes, and couldn't stop it. He clenched his fists hard enough to drive his nails into his palms and attempted to calm down by counting prime numbers.

Billy stood twitching in the middle of Dr. Octopus's lab, until the latter eventually asked, "Are you all right? You seem to be having some sort of facial-seizure…"

"I'll, umm, be fine…157... I just need to uhh, visit the little evil scientist room 163," Billy stuttered.

"Oooookay…" Octavius said dubiously, "It's back behind the curtain. Don't touch anything back there."

Billy grabbed one of the bags with his clothes and quickly shuffled off in the direction Octavius had indicated. He pushed the curtain back and was so surprised to see what lay behind it that he lost his count. It looked like a delightful Victorian parlor transplanted into the middle of this high-tech showroom. He carefully edged through the sitting room, attempting not to knock over any of the hundreds of curios, figurines, tiny porcelain dogs, and brick-a-brack that covered every available surface. Once he had to pause to steady a swaying vase filled with ancient dried flowers, while Dr. Octopus glowered at him.

Finally he made it across the antiques minefield to the open door that led to the bathroom. He ducked inside and quickly drew out his Dr. Horrible costume. With steady hands and practiced motions Billy drew it on, finally securing the goggles over his eyes. Horrible repacked his bag and strode out having no trouble weaving his way back to Dr. Octopus, who was now openly staring at him.

"As a mad scientist, I find that costume offensive," Octavius drawled.

"It helps me get in a more sciencey mood."

Octavius rolled his eyes, but strangely made no more sarcastic comments. Dr. Horrible swiftly unpacked his weapons bag and set up the freeze ray with steady hands. He had repaired the damage that had occurred the last time he'd used it, and had tested to make sure it still functioned, but otherwise he hadn't touched it. He let it warm up while he spread out the rest of his arsenal on one of the piles of clutter. He had brought three stun rays, an inertia beam, a portable cutting laser, a super-taser, an ultra-taser, the matter transporter, and his in-progress death ray. Octavius picked up the wrist-mounted stun ray, and examined it.

"What does this ridiculous series of tubes do?"

"It's a mid-sized stun ray. I use it for intimidation. And stunning people. It has a 10-20 minute duration, and basically just knocks the target out. I like to use it for most bank robberies, it gets the job done without any… unfortunate waste," Horrible explained.

"Non-lethal? Hmm… Not exactly your style from what I heard. Still, it has potential. How many pulses can you get on one charge?"

"Look," Horrible snapped, rounding on Dr. Octopus, "Killing isn't clever. It isn't elegant. It's usually not even helpful. Sometimes it is _necessary_. Until that point though, I'm not going to go around pointing death rays at any more innocent people!" he finished, almost yelling.

Dr. Octavius raised his eyebrow at the other scientist. Horrible looked down and realized he was tightly gripping the laser and pointing it at Octopus. He took a deep breath; he hadn't even realized he had picked it up. Slowly he put it down and backed away from the table, noticing at that point that Dr. Octopus had all of his tentacles poised to strike. Combat had never really been one of his strong points, but this was an all-new low for his situational awareness.

"Sorry, I... Uh, it can fire around 30 times on one charge. It's fairly reliable, for an experimental high-energy particle weapon. I haven't had any misfires yet, except for that one time. And the time Captain Hammer bent it and flung it at my head. I don't think that should count against it though…" Horrible trailed off.

"You're a strange little man, but you seem to make serviceable weapons. Or at least stun rays, though I'll want to see a full stress-test analysis. What do you like on pizza?" Dr. Octavius asked completely changing subjects.

"Pepperoni. Or mushrooms. No peppers though," Horrible answered absently as he looked around for the bag with his tools in it.

So passed a productive, if tense, evening for Dr. Horrible. The freeze ray successfully paused the delivery guy for 10 minutes before it shorted out again, and Octavius admitted to being grudgingly impressed. The time-stopped pizza was delicious, much better than anything he had eaten in L.A. After Horrible stunned the pizza guy and Dr. Octopus dragged him back to the car they settled in for an intense discussion of how to debug the freeze ray.

Horrible ended the evening with "homework" for altering the freeze ray, as well as to come up with the general specs for the suppression device. They had only lightly touched on the miniaturization, but Horrible had said he would look into that once he had some ideas for what could be used against Spider-man, but wouldn't inconvenience them too much.

Dr. Octavius disappeared behind the only other door in the lair at 11pm leaving Dr. Horrible with the instructions to not leave the living room area if he wanted to keep living. He might have been kidding, but Horrible wasn't going to chance it. He began his hopeless quest to attempt to determine which of the couches were the least uncomfortable while he fished for his cell phone. He eventually settled on a floral number, which was only somewhat like sitting on a pointy slab of concrete, and called Moist.

Or at least he tried to. After multiple messages of "I'm sorry, that party can not be reached from this number," Horrible gave up. It wasn't like Moist to block his calls, and his coverage here was great. After mulling it over he decided the League was somehow involved, and he wasn't going to get anywhere trying further tonight. Shifting position to try to restore feeling to his butt, he dragged out the William Bridal folder again. As he opened it a small packet fell to the floor. Curious, he opened it to find a new driver's license and passport for William Bridle as well as a credit card and checkbook.

The photos weren't from his current driver's license, and even more upsettingly, nor were they from anytime since he joined the League. He remembered accidently destroying that shirt in his phase one trials of the matter transporter, which had to have been three years ago. The E.L.E. had been watching him for that long? Horrible frowned as he considered the extent of their involvement in his personal life.

Well, once he was out of Dr. Octopus' hair he would try to get Moist to look into that too. In the meantime, he might as well try to read these papers he had supposedly authored and hope that by the time he was tired enough to sleep he have found somewhere even vaguely comfortable to do so.


End file.
